Recently, the serious global warming has been promoted mainly by the human activity. In order to reduce impacts of these problems, it is needed to develop the Elite tree that can be planted in the agriculturally unused field. We have developed an original transformation method and applied it to economically useful Eucalyptus species, E. camaldulensis and E. globules. As a result, we succeeded in developing some lines of salt tolerant Eucalyptus species. These plants have been cultivated in a special-netted house for an environmental biosafety assessment. In this assessment three lines of transgenic plants were admitted to be planted at the isolated field in Tsukuba Univ. and are now growing without problems.

Quality of wood chip is big impact on fiber line operation and quality of pulp for Kraft pulping in pulp & paper industry.
It has been requested to use the planted chip and waste chip more in point of environmental reason, but it has been given bad impact on fiber line operation and pulp quality.
Pulp & paper industry has to use waste chip more in future. This paper presented experience to use the waste chip in Chuetsu Pulp, Takaoka Mill, and also presented experience of Andritz Help Bin.

Utilization of Calcium Carbonate by the Causticizing Process for Filler and Coating Pigment

Precipitated calcium carbonate is produced as a by-product in the causticizing process of the kraft pulping process. Nippon Paper Industries, Co., Ltd started to use this calcium carbonate by the causticizing process (CCC)as filler 27 years ago. There are many advantages in using this CCC as filler and coating pigment in paper. One of the advantages is that the lime kiln operation can be reduced or eliminated, resulting in the reduction of fuel oil consumption in the calcination of calcium carbonate. The benefit of this reduction of fuel oil consumption is significantly increased with increased oil price. Furthermore, the accumulation of non process elements (NPE)in the lime cycle, which has recently been the big problem, can be avoided. Nippon Paper Industries, Co., Ltd. has established the technology to use this CCC as paper material throughout the research and the technical development for many years. In this report, the outline of CCC is shown. Then, the coating pigment production technology and the morphology-control technology developed in our company are presented. Subsequently, the influence of the implementation of CCC technology on the reduction of NPE accumulation in the lime cycle and the reduction of fuel oil consumption in the lime kiln operation are discussed with the results of our research.

Improvement of Effluent Qualities with ECF Bleaching and Next Challenges

Hitoshi Takagi
Japan Pulp and Paper Research Institute, Inc.

The production of ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free)bleached kraft pulp has reached to near 90% of the total bleached kraft pulp production in Japan. The process change to ECF bleaching decreased the emission of organic chlorine compounds (chloroform, polychlorinated phenolic compounds and dioxins)from bleached kraft pulp mills dramatically.
AOX discharge was decreased by 80% with ECF bleaching, but a small amount of AOX was generated in the chlorine dioxide bleaching process. As the chlorate concentration in the bleach filtrates from the chlorine dioxide bleaching process was high, the impact of chlorate to the environment should be estimated.
Next challenges to improve effluent qualities will be reductions of COD, BOD, TSS, heavy metals, color and odor in the effluent from pulp and paper mills. Especially, BOD reduction is a key to the removal of toxicity to aquatic organisms. Effluent minimization will also be a future imperative.

Operating Experience of Pulp Handling Plant

Yuji Ariki
Osaka Mill, Kishu Paper Co., Ltd.

Kishu Paper Osaka mill is along the Kanzaki River in southern Suita-city, Osaka. It is a mill producing speciality paper and making various kinds of products in small lots. All the pulp of raw material is using sheet pulp, unites it with the kind of paper, and uses various pulp brands properly. Although the worker was doing sheet pulp handling work before, operation became possible automatically by introducing this equipment. This report is introduction of the equipment, and operation experience. At this mill, the case where chose pulp classification and some kinds were blended according to a brand installed handling equipment by most for these increase in efficiency. Many problems depended on complicated combination when operating till today occurred, and although trial and error were repeated, it was able to work quickly.

Operation Experience of Felt Washing Cleaner

Akira Maeda
Edogawa Mill, Oji Paperboard Co., Ltd.

There is a certain tendency in the environment surrounding Japanese White Paper Board Industry that saving of wrapping paper, shifting to softer wrapping material and materials further downgrade are proceeding in the market. The Printing and Paper receptacle manufacturers are shifting their manufacturing to small lot production or other kind products to realize cost reduction in order to comply with the increased quality requests from the end users. In this circumstance, paper manufacturers are requested further quality improvement and cost reduction of the products.
The paper makers have been trying to extend the life of fabrics in the press section. In this report we introduce our operation experience of the first felt washing cleaner “Projet type P” in Japan, which has been installed to PM5 to avoid build-up of contamination in the fabrics. The Projet type P has provided the improvement of paper quality and the reduction of a production cost.

The Operating Experience of PM N1 OptiSizer

Jun Azetaka
Yosinaga Mill, Nippon Daishowa Paperboard Co., Ltd.

Yoshinaga mill, Nippon Daishowa Paperboard Co., Ltd produces 660,000 tons of paperboard and paper annually as “an urban recycling mill” using recycled paper as the main material, making good use of abundant groundwater from Mt. Fuji and the conditions of locations near the Tokyo area.
PM N1 was reconstructed in January 2007. In this reconstruction, OptiSizer by Metso was installed instead of the 2 rolls size press.
This report describes the outline of PM N1 and the operating experience of OptiSizer.

The Operating Experience of Mini Shoe Press

Hidefumi Ariyoshi
Hachinohe Mill, Mitsubishi Paper Mills Limited

Hachinohe Mill, Mitsubishi Paper has the capacity of approximately 900,000 ton of papers per year. We have seven paper machines in Hachinohe Mill, and installed Mini shoe press of MHI in No.2 (2PM)and No.6 (6PM)paper machines with the aim of production increase and steam saving in August 2007. Mini shoe press is compact type of shoe press covering some faults of standard shoe press, and has high dewatering performance.
This remodeling brought dryness up, speed up and higher machine efficiency, and we achieved the aim of production increase and steam saving.
This report is described about the outline of remodeling and the effect of Mini shoe press at 6PM.

Yonago Mill installed a clean energy boiler in July 2005, whose main fuel is RPF (Refuse Paper & Plastic Fuel). The clean energy boiler (RPF boiler)makes use of mixture of recovered paper that is hard to be used as a raw material for recycled paper and waste plastic, which contributes to reduce the amount of waste and CO2 emission.
In the meantime, the RPF boiler has one problem such as a boiler corrosion by chloride contained in RPF.
Here, we report the method for measuring chloride content in RPF by means of fluorescence X-ray analysis. Fluorescence X-ray analysis is a rapid method to measure chloride content in RPF, and it enables us to measure all samples from tracks delivered to the mill.

How Technological Innovations Changed Newsprint and the Making Process of It
-Survey on Technological Developments in Newsprint Production in Japan-

Kiyoaki Iida
Senior researcher in 2007, Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology, National
Museum of Nature and Science
Executive Director emeritus, JAPAN TAPPI

The basic paper making process was invented in China in A.D. 105. Its raw materials were reclaimed clothes and woody glasses, and paper was hand-made. The process evolved to modern paper making one through the age of the industrial revolution, using wood as raw material and making sheet with machinery force. With adding new applications such as packaging and tissue in the 1920’s, the paper industry developed to one of the largest industries. Due to its largeness, the paper industry has had to reconcile environment. The industry has, in its character, a sustainable carbon recycling system, in which carbon passes from wood to paper, which is recycled, to carbon dioxide after energy recovery and again to wood.
Though Japan is ranked the third in paper and paperboard production due to the rapid expansion of China, it is still an important player in the world. The fact that the industry has been competitive against imported products in spite of scarce domestic resources (wood and energy)suggests that there should have been many kinds of technological developments which made the industry prospering. The author intends to clarify the characteristics of those developments by surveying those of newsprint which is a representative product in volume as well as in technological development.
The paper is serialized in four parts, and this is the first of them. Commentary on basic technologies in this part will help to understand the survey starting in the coming issues.

Preparation of Hexenuronic Acid to Estimate the Discharge of AOX during ClO2 Bleaching

Kengo Magara, Tsutomu Ikeda and Shuji Hosoya
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute＊
Izumi Shibata and Akira Isogai
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

In this study, we investigated the applicability of 4-O-methylglucuronoxylan (xylan)and cellouronate as raw materials for preparing hexenuronic acid groups by alkali-cooking. We also investigated the generation of AOX during chlorine dioxide (ClO2)treatment of the prepared hexenuronic acids. Based on Teleman’s procedure, suitable conditions for alkali-cooking were established for xylan and cellouronate. In the ClO2 treatment, xylan or cellouronate cooked in alkali solution generated AOX in different amounts, which might depend on the solubility of the polymer in acidic solution. In the ClO2 treatment, xylan separated from wood hemicellulose must be removed due to the influence of lignin on AOX generation. Hence, hexenuronic acid groups in alkali-cooked cellouronate can be applied as a standard compound for estimating of the discharge of AOX during ClO2 bleaching.

Junji Tanaka
Research and Development Center, Kawasaki Kasei Chemicals Ltd.*1
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Hiroshi Ohi
Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba
Tomoya Yokoyama and Yuji Matsumoto
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

By the use of specially designed laboratory cooking equipment, the behavior and the fate of a cooking additive during the kraft cooking process was examined for three quinone compounds, 9, 10-anthrahydroquinone (AHQ), 9, 10-anthraquinone (AQ), and, 1, 4-dihyro-9, 10-dihydroxyanthracene (DDA). After prescribed time of cooking with one of these additives, quinone compounds present in the following three fractions were determined as the form of AQ. Fraction A: present in free black liquor, B: present in washed liquor, and, C: present in extracted with chloroform from washed chips. By a kraft-AQ cooking, about 47% of the initial dose was found in fraction B and C at the initial stage of the cooking. In the middle stage of the cooking, the amount found in fraction A and B decreased considerably, but that in fraction C was almost constant. By kraft-AHQ or kraft-DDA cooking, the amount found in fraction B was smaller and that in fraction C was larger than kraft-AQ cooking, suggesting that AHQ and DDA can be more efficiently penetrated into chips than AQ. Further addition of white liquor containing quinone compounds at the middle of cooking caused the decrease in the amount of quinone compounds contained in the fraction C. All these results suggested that quinone compounds present closely to chips are rather isolated from other part of cooking liquor.